Dems unprepared for a partial government shutdown that lasts for months and months By Thomas Lifson

Conventional wisdom among the media and politician branches of the Democratic Party holds that President Trump and the Republicans will pay a serious price for the very partial (25%) "government shutdown" as it drags on. The passage of a House budget bill with not even one dollar, as Speaker Pelosi averred, is supposed to increase pressure on President Trump in their view. They seem to believe that the public so loves visiting national parks in the middle of the winter – one of the few aspects of the 25% of the federal government that affects ordinary voters – that Republicans will crack under public pressure.

Actually, though, they don't even get to such a calculation of who is missing what government services during a 25% shutdown. To a Democrat politician, government is so essential, so fundamental to his role as good people serving needy citizens of all stripes, that nobody could possibly endure a shutdown that lasts for months and months. It is literally unthinkable, which is why Democrats have not bothered to think through who is going to start screaming the loudest as time continues its march forward with only 75% of the federal government funded.

They are wrong.

Senator Richard Shelby yesterday warned them:

"I'm thinking we might be in for a long haul here," Shelby told reporters at the Capitol. "I'm not optimistic now."

Shelby added, "If we can ever get over this, I think then you've got another week. A new week, a new day, and so forth." But that seems increasingly unlikely, he said. "If we don't get over this – if this goes on for months and months, and it could, I hope not, then that might be a preview of coming attractions."

By far the biggest and most powerful political faction within the Democrat camp negatively affected by the shutdown is federal employees, who are forced to live on savings. The loyalty of federal employees as a partisan constituency – as voters and especially as donors – has had many benefits for the Democratic Party, including ongoing obstructionism of President Trump. But President Trump sees the other side of that coin, one that Pelosi, Schumer, and others are blind to.

Most people as well paid as federal bureaucrats (they earn substantially more than the general public they "serve" at all but the top levels) can handle one or two missed paychecks.

Source: Foundation for Economic Education.

But to go three months or more with no income, but mortgages or rent, food, electricity, insurance, and other continuing expenses not on shutdown, requires real, liquid financial resources that many salaried people do not accumulate. My guess is that the pain of unpaid bills is going to start gaining momentum, just as Christmas gifts charged to credit cards have to be paid this month. In another month, in February, those paycheck-less federal employees are going to see exactly how much interest has accumulated on their credit card bills. March will be much worse for them, as interest accumulates on top of the new bills that have to be charged to the plastic.

In other words, a prime segment of the Democrats' coalition is in a financial hole that gets deeper and deeper with each passing day – all because Nancy Pelosi says a border wall is "immoral," a nonsense proposition that only sycophants can mouth without inner doubts. The position that not even a dollar should be spent on a border wall is not viable, which means that a compromise on calling it a "slatted fence" or "border protection" or some other euphemism is going to get more attractive to the federal employees and to the political bosses.

How long will it take? My guess is that a second unpaid credit card bill for federal employees whose last paycheck was last year – at about the time the electric utilities, mortgage lenders, and landlords start sending warning letters – is when the pressure on Pelosi and Schumer becomes unbearable.

Meanwhile, the public learns every day that life goes on pretty darn well with a federal government only 75% as big as it was last year. If the shutdown lasts until April 15, who knows what conclusions might be drawn?

Why not take a clean American democratic vote on the $5 billion wall/slats/beaded-curtain in the House and Senate? Yeas & nays. Majority wins. Just do that. Easy and fair, no? Or are you afraid of the final results?

This will prove definitively that Americans do not want the stupid wall. Then we can move on with the business of governing America.

Trump wont do this because he knows he has no support for the wall. None.

Trump is going to VETO any budget that doesn't include significant dedicated money to keep this wall project moving. This isn't about Putzian finger-in-the-wind people polls or Nielson ratings. This is our national security at the border.

The Dems can obstruct, but they are equally responsible for the government shutdown. And the only way to reopen it, will be for the Dems to get 20 Republicans to agree on their plan and get the 66 votes needed to override a Presidential veto. Or for the GOP to get 10 or so Dems to agree on a Repiblican plan. But the ways things are so horribly partisan and divided, that ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

The Founding Fathers set this all up this way for this very reason .... both Senate and Congress, Democrats and Republicans, need to come up with a unified plan to fund the government with which the President agrees.... or we wait.

So get comfy, Putz.

I don't think that Pelosi and that smarmy Chuck Schumer have it in them to get that many Republicans on board with their plan.

"The Founding Fathers set this all up this way for this very reason .... both Senate and Congress, Democrats and Republicans, need to come up with a unified plan to fund the government with which the President agrees.... or we wait."

Worth repeating, IMO. Either find a bipartisan plan, or be content with gridlock.

I've grown tired of hoping for the former, so I remain content with the latter. At least one side or the other doesn't have power to f**k things up further. Thank you Founding Fathers.

Democrats know that the wall is imminent. Is the pending dread more psychologically damaging than the erection of the wall?

Democrats know that the wall is what will finally break them, and no amount of Democrat and Democrat Media Industrial Complex (DMIC) agitprop will ever tear down the wall. It will be the chasm between the old guard and the burgeoning of Leninism within the party.

The wall is deserving of proper name capitalization.

The Democrats know that The Wall will achieve its intent of deterring and preventing mass illegal immigration, which has resulted in an illegal alien population that the federal government has no true, accurate count of.

The Wall will be the physical affirmation of our historic, theory of black swan, glass-ceiling shattering 2016 win over Empress Clinton. Tax reform and withdrawals from bogus deals with Iran and climate change globalist welfare treaties aren't palpable; I can't take a selfie in front of the 2018 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. United States Supreme Court justices are a bit more tangible, but the court isn't omnipresent 24/7.

The Wall, though? That proposed happy marriage of steel, spikes, and concrete? Oh, it will be glorious. I know that President Trump has described The Wall as "beautiful," but we don't care if it's the ugly Christmas sweater of American architecture.

The Wall Will Save Lives and Money

Want to know how padded rubber room-inducing The Wall is for Democrats? Trump has convinced fiscal conservatives to spend money, and Democrats have talked about saving money, as evidenced here and here.

The Wall is Mount Rushmore and AR-15s and Confederate statues and the Electoral College and the Gadsden flag all in one. It is a watchtower, a monument to sovereignty, an homage to citizens, law enforcement officers, all Americans who have to worry about not only American criminals murdering them, but those here illegally as well. Ignore the Democrats and Ben Sasses of America, who prattle on about "xenophobia"; fear and greed are the bases for every decision made by the Homo sapiens species. Am I afraid of crimes being committed against me and my family from those who shouldn't be here? Damn right, I am, and if most of the spineless politicians in Washington acted a bit more fearful, Kate Steinle, Mollie Tibbetts, and Ronil Singh would likely be alive. Singh, a California police officer killed by an illegal alien in the line of duty last week, emigrated from Fiji, a country I bet is safer than the Golden State.

I wouldn't care if "only" one person died annually from illegal immigration, and I would care not if "only" one illegal border crossing occurred annually; the cult of the Democrats' gun confiscation sales pitch has always been "if it saves one life." If they believe that, vote to fund The Wall and end the government shutdown. If The Wall saves one life (it'll save many more), and saves even the smallest percentage of the annual $116-billion illegal alien financial burden, then break ground today. Just keep reiterating this to all your Democrat friends and relatives: "but if it saves one life," "but if it saves one life," " but if it..."

And GOP, you listening? Especially you zealously open-borders Tessio Republicans, who have continued to betray your voters the way Sal Tessio betrayed the Corleone family in The Godfather?

The Democrats know that The Wall will work spectacularly well. The Beto knows it. Fugaziahontas, Elizabeth Warren, knows it. Kuckoo Kamala Harris knows it; so does Gay Sex Goon Cory Booker (I gave him this moniker after he interrogated Mike Pompeo about gay sex during his secretary of state confirmation hearings earlier this year). Joey B to the I to the D-E-N? Affirmative. The Wall will accelerate the cannibalization within the Democratic Party, between establishment Dems, who are mostly covert Leninists, and the new-school Dems, who are unabashedly open about their collectivist fetish. The Wall is the Bolsheviks overthrowing Tsar Nicholas II, and it will usher in the Democrats' version of the Russian Revolution. It will be a sight to behold. Recommended viewing beverage is a Build That Wall cocktail. Yes, such a drink exists.

The entrenched Washingtonian Democratic and Republican parties can't stand the fact that a reality television star president will do more to curb illegal immigration and the ills it has begotten than all their combined lousy efforts.

How much will The Wall cost? A lot of moola; $25 billion, maybe more. Is it worth it? Sure is. Am I concerned that Mexico won't pay for it? Nope.

Admittedly, I'm not thrilled about all aspects of The Wall, such as the expected eminent domain, which could displace hundreds of landowners. Since these property-owners will be an integral part of history, let's compensate them with triple their market value.

The Wall Makes or Breaks 2020

The Wall is a black and white policy issue for Trump. He knows he can't cave to the Democrats. If he acquiesces, read my lips: Clinton will be the 2020 Democrat nominee, and she will win.

But worry not. The Wall is Fort Sumter; there's no going back from it now.

The Wall isn't anti-immigrant; in fact, it might be the most pro-immigrant expenditure in American history – a ubiquitous reminder that America is the most generous nation in the history of the world – which admits two legal immigrants every minute of every day and will welcome with open arms those who adhere to our rule of law. Nationalism is the glue that holds this whole American experiment together.

Some presidents wants freeways, hospitals, and airports named after them. Not our president. The Donald J. Trump Great Wall of America is what he wants, and it's what the majority of people in the majority of states want. Time to get this "elections have consequences" party started.

Build that wall along all 2,000 miles on the southern border, Mr. President. Build it high, build it wide, build it tall, as tall as the sky. Our only regret about The Wall will be that it's not visible from outer space.